J. PAUL GETTY MUSEUM PRESENTS ERROL MORRIS AND RICKY JAY IN CONVERSATION ABOUT PERCEPTION, DECEPTION AND WHY WE BELIEVE WHAT WE SEE

Morris and Jay appear as part of "Getty Perspectives" lecture series at the Getty Center, on Thursday, October 8 at 7pm in the Harold M. Williams auditorium

September 22, 2009

LOS ANGELES—Award-winning filmmaker Errol Morris (Standard Operating Procedure, The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line) and Ricky Jay, author, actor, historian, and practitioner of sleight-of-hand, take the stage as part of “Getty Perspectives,” on Thursday, October 8, 2009, at 7pm in the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Center.

Can anyone truly tell reality from illusion? When we pride ourselves on our ability to distinguish forgery from masterpiece are we only engaging in self-deception? Morris and Jay, who have recently collaborated on Morris's New York Times blog, consider these questions in a wide-ranging discussion of art and perception, offering a thought-provoking evening that challenges what we think we know about art and about ourselves.

Errol Morris is best known as the director of probing, visually seductive films including The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Academy Award-winner for best documentary in 2004), Standard Operating Procedure, The Thin Blue Line, and his 1978 debut nonfiction film Gates of Heaven. In his blog posts for The New York Times, he brilliantly dissects issues of truth, lies, and perception, frequently addressing works of art and challenging us to look closely and recognize factors affecting how we see. His provocative series of posts on Roger Fenton's famous war photograph Valley of the Shadow of Death received a Cliopatria Award in 2007 for the best history writing in the blogosphere.

Ricky Jay is an author, actor, historian, collector, scholar, and sleight-of-hand artist, as well as one of the world's foremost thinkers on perception, deception, and illusion. Jay has appeared in numerous films and on Broadway and has consulted for film and television. His new one-man show "Ricky Jay: A Rogues Gallery, an Evening of Conversation and Performance” begins a two-week run at The Geffen Theater in Westwood on Dec 29th, 2009. Jay last spoke at the Getty Museum in conjunction with the popular exhibition Devices of Wonder in 2001.

Admission to “Getty Perspectives: Errol Morris and Ricky Jay” is free, but reservations are required. Visit www.getty.edu to make reservations.

The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that features the Getty Conservation Institute, the Getty Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and the Getty Research Institute. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.

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